Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast

Richard Feynman Cargo Cult speech at CalTech 1974

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

Ep 080 "The Cargo Cult of Martial Belief, Wishcasting and Bloodshed"

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 10:00:00 GMT

Episode 100!

Well, when I combine the 20 episodes of WarNotes with the CG podcasts but a chance to pop the bubbly anyway.

Today we discuss the critical lack of critical thinking that has led the US into the unenviable position of being an extraordinarily 20th century fighting force nor fit for purpose for 21st century peer combat.

It will get worse.

I'll offer some more recommendations and a path forward.

References:

Sun Tzu The Art of War

Carl von Clausewitz On War

Miyamoto Musashi A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

H. John Poole The Last Hundred Yards: The NCO’s Contribution to Warfare

Christian Brose The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare

Qiao Liang & Wang Xiangsui Unrestricted Warfare: China's Master Plan to Destroy America

The Boogeyman of 21st-Century Warfare: Drones

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

Ep 079 "Iran, Salvo Competition and the Inevitable Stalemate"

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 10:00:00 GMT

I'll discuss Iran and the grunt math of salvo competition.

Buppert’s Law of Military Topography:

“Mountainous terrain held by riflemen who know what they are about cannot be militarily defeated.”

For other insight on Iran, I recommend CG episodes 061 , 067 and 078.

References:

Why the US is facing strategic defeat

Points of Resistance and Departure: An interview with James C. Scott

Lester Grau and Charles J. Bartles Mountain Warfare and Other Lofty Problems: Foreign mountain combat veterans discuss movement and maneuver, training and resupply (Helion Studies in Military History)

Lester Grau The Bear Went Over The Mountain: Soviet Combat Tactics In Afghanistan [Illustrated Edition]

Lester Grau The Other Side of the Mountain: Mujahideen Tactics in the Soviet-Afghan War

Mark Thompson The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front 1915-1919

James C. Scott The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia

Sun Tzu The Art of War

Carl von Clausewitz On War

Miyamoto Musashi A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

H. John Poole The Last Hundred Yards: The NCO’s Contribution to Warfare

Christian Brose The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare

Qiao Liang & Wang Xiangsui Unrestricted Warfare: China's Master Plan to Destroy America

My Substack:

Points of Resistance and Departure: An interview with James C. Scott

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 078 "Iran and I Lost: The American Empire Tilts Again"

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 11:00:00 GMT

With Western conflict in Iran escalating and in train, I discuss the vagaries and verities of the nuclear gambit in Iran in the Middle East and what this will mean to the future of warfare for the reminder of this century.

I assess how the RMAs rapidly displacing centuries-old conflict norms are going to look for the remainder of the century.

Buppert’s Law of Military Topography:

“Mountainous terrain held by riflemen who know what they are about cannot be militarily defeated.”

For other insight on Iran, I recommend CG episodes 061 and 067.

References:

Lester Grau The Bear Went Over The Mountain: Soviet Combat Tactics In Afghanistan [Illustrated Edition]

Lester Grau The Other Side of the Mountain: Mujahideen Tactics in the Soviet-Afghan War

Mark Thompson The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front 1915-1919

James C. Scott The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia

Sun Tzu The Art of War

Carl von Clausewitz On War

Miyamoto Musashi A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

H. John Poole The Last Hundred Yards: The NCO’s Contribution to Warfare

Christian Brose The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare

Qiao Liang & Wang Xiangsui Unrestricted Warfare: China's Master Plan to Destroy America

My Substack:

Soryu (16SS) class Attack Submarine - SSK

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 077 "The CG Mailbag: Question Time and the Backbenchers Lament 26.1"

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 15:03:14 GMT

It's been quite some time since I have responded to "mail" so I have curated five questions to address:.

What are your thoughts on the Maduro and VZ kerfuffle?
How do you fix the defense acquisition system and fraud?
What should the US Navy do in the 21st century?
How did GEN Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck do it (preview)?
Are American SOF capable of 21st century mission success?

References:

Robert Gaudi African Kaiser: General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and the Great War in Africa, 1914-1918

David Smith The East Africa Campaign 1914–18: Von Lettow-Vorbeck’s Masterpiece (Campaign, 379)

Sun Tzu The Art of War

Carl von Clausewitz On War

Miyamoto Musashi A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

H. John Poole The Last Hundred Yards: The NCO’s Contribution to Warfare

Christian Brose The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare

Qiao Liang & Wang Xiangsui Unrestricted Warfare: China's Master Plan to Destroy America

Part Three at Episode 074

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

Ep 076 "Modern Antifa: Communist Insurgency in the US Part Five (Conclusions)"

Mon, 08 Dec 2025 10:00:43 GMT

I offer my scorched earth solutions to fighting Antifa and communism in the US..

America is in a Civil War with a major political party and its blacked-shirted paramilitary arm going from cold to hot war.

Prepare accordingly.

Part Four at Episode 075

Part Two at Episode 073

Part One at Episode 072.

I did a primer on cell organization in Ep 051 "Cellular Ecology: Guerrilla Organizations and Grunt Math".

References:

House Un-American Activities Committee records, 1945-1975

Why Schools Don't Educate by John Taylor Gatto

F A Hayek The Intellectuals and Socialism

Bryan Borrough Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence

Andy Ngo Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy

Modeling Terrorist Networks - Complex Systems at the Mid-Range

Understanding the Form, Function, and Logic of Clandestine Insurgent and Terrorist Networks: The First Step in Effective Counternetwork Operations

Stephen Biddle Nonstate Warfare: The Military Methods of Guerillas, Warlords, and Militias

Part Three at Episode 074

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

Ep 075 "Modern Antifa: Communist Insurgency in the US Part Four"

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 10:00:41 GMT

I further examine the educational feeder mechanism for communist and terrorist insurgency that is Antifa and its affiliated organizations both governmental and non-government. In this third episode, I examine the pedagogical origins of government supremacist ideology in American schools.

America is in a Civil War with a major political party and its blacked-shirted paramilitary arm going from cold to hot war.

Prepare accordingly.

Part Two at Episode 073

Part One at Episode 072.

I did a primer on cell organization in Ep 051 "Cellular Ecology: Guerrilla Organizations and Grunt Math".

References:

House Un-American Activities Committee records, 1945-1975

Why Schools Don't Educate by John Taylor Gatto

***

F A Hayek The Intellectuals and Socialism

Bryan Borrough Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence

Andy Ngo Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy

Modeling Terrorist Networks - Complex Systems at the Mid-Range

Understanding the Form, Function, and Logic of Clandestine Insurgent and Terrorist Networks: The First Step in Effective Counternetwork Operations

Stephen Biddle Nonstate Warfare: The Military Methods of Guerillas, Warlords, and Militias

House Un-American Activities Committee records, 1945-1975

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

Ep 074 "Modern Antifa: Communist Insurgency in the US Part Three"

Mon, 10 Nov 2025 10:00:41 GMT

I examine the feeder mechanism for communist and terrorist insurgency that is Antifa and its affiliated organizations both governmental and non-government. In this third episode, we examine the epistemology that created a rump state of communist resistance in America. now.

America is in a Civil War with a major political party and its blacked-shirted paramilitary arm going from cold to hot war.

Prepare accordingly.

Part Two at Episode 73

Part One at Episode 72.

I did a primer on cell organization in Ep 051 "Cellular Ecology: Guerrilla Organizations and Grunt Math".

References:

***

F A Hayek The Intellectuals and Socialism

Bryan Borrough Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence

Andy Ngo Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy

Modeling Terrorist Networks - Complex Systems at the Mid-Range

Understanding the Form, Function, and Logic of Clandestine Insurgent and Terrorist Networks: The First Step in Effective Counternetwork Operations

Stephen Biddle Nonstate Warfare: The Military Methods of Guerillas, Warlords, and Militias

House Un-American Activities Committee records, 1945-1975

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

Ep 073 "Modern Antifa: Communist Insurgency in the US Part Two"

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 09:00:52 GMT

I examine the domestic communist and terrorist insurgency that is Antifa and its affiliated organizations both governmental and non-government. In this second episode, we examine the history that brought the US to the brink of civil war it is at now.

America is in a Civil War with a major political party and its blacked-shirted paramilitary arm going from cold to hot war.

Prepare accordingly.

Part One at Episode 72.

I did a primer on cell organization in Ep 051 "Cellular Ecology: Guerrilla Organizations and Grunt Math".

References:

***

Bryan Borrough Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence

Andy Ngo Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy

Modeling Terrorist Networks - Complex Systems at the Mid-Range

Understanding the Form, Function, and Logic of Clandestine Insurgent and Terrorist Networks: The First Step in Effective Counternetwork Operations

HR Kedward In Search of the Maquis: Rural Resistance in Southern France, 1942-1944

George Millar Maquis: An Englishman in the French Resistance

Ian Wellsted SAS with the Maquis: In Action with the French Resistance, June–September 1944

Stephen Biddle Nonstate Warfare: The Military Methods of Guerillas, Warlords, and Militias

House Un-American Activities Committee records, 1945-1975

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

Ep 072 "Modern Antifa: Communist Insurgency in the US Part One"

Mon, 13 Oct 2025 08:29:12 GMT

I examine the domestic communist and terrorist insurgency that is Antifa and its affiliated organizations both governmental and non-governments;. In this first episode, we shall examine origins, terminology and some expositions on methodology.

America is in a Civil War with a major political party and its blacked-shirted paramilitary arm going from cold to hot war.

Prepare accordingly.

I did a primer on cell organization in Ep 051 "Cellular Ecology: Guerrilla Organizations and Grunt Math".

References:

***

Andy Ngo Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy

Modeling Terrorist Networks - Complex Systems at the Mid-Range

Understanding the Form, Function, and Logic of Clandestine Insurgent and Terrorist Networks: The First Step in Effective Counternetwork Operations

HR Kedward In Search of the Maquis: Rural Resistance in Southern France, 1942-1944

George Millar Maquis: An Englishman in the French Resistance

Ian Wellsted SAS with the Maquis: In Action with the French Resistance, June–September 1944

Stephen Biddle Nonstate Warfare: The Military Methods of Guerillas, Warlords, and Militias

NCTC Islamist Attacks on US Forecast 2025

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

Ep 071 "The Devil's Thermostat: Turning Up the Heat on American Civil War"

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 09:00:20 GMT

This episode examines civil war manifesting itself in the US and the world over the next few years and makes a forecast on how close we are on the doomsday clock of civil war on American soil.

The probability and possibility of civil kinetic conflict in the US is closer than in decades..

My Storming America Series covers the gamut of what a spontaneous attack in the US will look like when terror cells launch a simultaneous attack on the US homeland which in my mind is the primary man-made vector for civil war in America.

I cover it in Episodes 37, 41-43, 49-50 and 62 of my Chasing Ghosts podcast.

References:

Video:

Winston Marshall The UNTOLD History of The White Slave Trade & How Islam Conquered 3/4 of The Christian World

Andrew Gold CIVIL WAR is Coming - Professor David Betz

Books:

Stephen Biddle Nonstate Warfare: The Military Methods of Guerillas, Warlords, and Militias

Barbara Walter How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them

David Armitage Civil Wars: A History in Ideas

William Forstchen Day of Wrath

Kurt Schlichter The Attack

Karl Dahl

Enemies Foreign and Domestic

Foreign Enemies And Traitors

Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista

The Red Cliffs of Zerhoun

Castigo Cay

Eric Frank Russell The Wasp

Michael Z. Williamson The Weapon (and the entire Freehold series)

Ernest R. May Strange Victory: Hitler’s Conquest of France

Robert Heinlein The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Robert Asprey War In The Shadows: The Guerrilla In History

Howard Jones My Lai: Vietnam, 1968, and the Descent into Darkness

US Treasury Sanctions Venezuelan Cartel Headed by Maduro

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

Ep 070 "Bolivar's Revenge: The Venezuelan Tar Pit and American Ambition"

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 09:00:41 GMT

We examine the emerging Venezuelan kerfuffle.

There are many currents and undercurrents in the latest incipient war debacle in America history. This will be a disaster for America if it clacks off and; expect the American government to make this a preamble to go kinetic on the drug war generally and the following catastrophes.

I covered this in detail in both parts of Ep 059 and 059 "The Mexican Cartel Conundrum: War Without End".

Gird your loins for the first war in American history that will lead to significant foreign-born bad actors making war on American soil.

***

References:

Marie Arana Bolivar: American Liberator

Carlos Lizarralde Venezuela's Collapse: The Long Story of How Things Fell Apart

Justin Podur Extraordinary Threat: The U.S. Empire, the Media, and Twenty Years of Coup Attempts in Venezuela

Tom Wainwright Narconomics: How to Run a Drug Cartel

Benjamin T. Smith The Dope: The Real History of the Mexican Drug Trade

Anabel Hernandez Narcoland: The Mexican Drug Lords and Their Godfathers

Ioan Grillo El Narco: Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency

David F. Marley Mexican Cartels: An Encyclopedia of Mexico's Crime and Drug Wars

Carmen Boullosa A Narco History: How the United States and Mexico Jointly Created the “Mexican Drug War”

Patrick Winn Narcotopia: In Search of the Asian Drug Cartel That Survived the CIA

Jesse Fink Pure Narco: One Man's True Story of 25 Years Inside the Cartels

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

Ep 069 "The CG Mailbag: Question Time and the Backbenchers Lament 25.1"

Mon, 04 Aug 2025 09:00:28 GMT

It's been quite some time since I have responded to "mail" so I have curated five questions to address:.

What are your personal weapons of choice: rifle or pistol?
How do you fix the defense acquisition system?
Is the American military really in terminal collapse?
Storming America; is it still coming to the US?
Is America headed to civil war?

I'll offer some more recommendations and a path forward.

References:

Sun Tzu The Art of War

Carl von Clausewitz On War

Miyamoto Musashi A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

H. John Poole The Last Hundred Yards: The NCO’s Contribution to Warfare

Christian Brose The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare

Qiao Liang & Wang Xiangsui Unrestricted Warfare: China's Master Plan to Destroy America

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

Ep 068 "The Military Drone Revolution: Make All Flesh Forfeit"

Mon, 07 Jul 2025 10:58:49 GMT

Despite what you are told by the mainstream news sources in the media, the drone war is here to stay and it will be the most significant war modality for the next generation. It has literally exposed all ground troops and the exquisite platforms the West relies upon in war-making for detailed neutralization and destruction.

In concert with the democratized distribution of ubiquitous missile technology, it is the end of Western dominance in warfare.

Despite what you may think, the US conventional forces are in terminal collapse and completely unprepared for 21st century peer conflict.

I'll offer some more recommendations and a path forward.

References:

Sun Tzu The Art of War

Carl von Clausewitz On War

Miyamoto Musashi A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

H. John Poole The Last Hundred Yards: The NCO’s Contribution to Warfare

Christian Brose The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare

Qiao Liang & Wang Xiangsui Unrestricted Warfare: China's Master Plan to Destroy America

Points of Resistance and Departure: An interview with James C. Scott

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

Ep 067 "The Mountains of Madness: Military Defeat and Terrain Part II"

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 09:01:20 GMT

This will be the first CG episode to get the complete audio upgrade and revision to achieve the cleanest sound ever for the podcast series. The WarNotes episode catalog has been completely re-fabbed using the new technology at Chris Williams' Podsworth.

Let me know what you think.

We discuss the latest missteps by the West in Iran.

The recent American involvement in direct military intervention in Iran changed the temper and nature of the war inevitably.

I assess how the RMAs rapidly displacing centuries-old conflict norms are going to look for the remainder of the century.

Buppert’s Law of Military Topography:

“Mountainous terrain held by riflemen who know what they are about cannot be militarily defeated.”

References:

Lester Grau The Bear Went Over The Mountain: Soviet Combat Tactics In Afghanistan [Illustrated Edition]

Lester Grau The Other Side of the Mountain: Mujahideen Tactics in the Soviet-Afghan War

Mark Thompson The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front 1915-1919

James C. Scott The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia

Sun Tzu The Art of War

Carl von Clausewitz On War

Miyamoto Musashi A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

H. John Poole The Last Hundred Yards: The NCO’s Contribution to Warfare

Christian Brose The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare

Qiao Liang & Wang Xiangsui Unrestricted Warfare: China's Master Plan to Destroy America

My Substack:

Winston Marshall The UNTOLD History of The White Slave Trade & How Islam Conquered 3/4 of The Christian World

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 066 "Civil War on the Horizon: The Empire Strikes Back"

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 09:00:53 GMT

This CG episode got the complete audio upgrade and revision to achieve the cleanest sound ever for the podcast series effective 22 June 2025 using the new technology at Chris Williams' Podsworth.

This episode examines civil war manifesting itself in the world in the west in the 21st century and some of my modest forecasts of war weather in the next few years.

Dr. David Betz and others have started to float the balloons of probability and possibility of civil kinetic conflict in the West.

I cover it in Episodes 37, 41-43, 49-50 and 62 of my Chasing Ghosts podcast.

References:

Video:

Andrew Gold CIVIL WAR is Coming - Professor David Betz

Books:

Barbara Walter How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them

David Armitage Civil Wars: A History in Ideas

William Forstchen Day of Wrath

Kurt Schlichter The Attack

Karl Dahl

Enemies Foreign and Domestic

Foreign Enemies And Traitors

Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista

The Red Cliffs of Zerhoun

Castigo Cay

Eric Frank Russell The Wasp

Michael Z. Williamson The Weapon (and the entire Freehold series)

Ernest R. May Strange Victory: Hitler’s Conquest of France

Robert Heinlein The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Robert Asprey War In The Shadows: The Guerrilla In History

Howard Jones My Lai: Vietnam, 1968, and the Descent into Darkness

Global Instances of Coups from 1950 to 2010: A New Dataset

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

Ep 065 "Color Revolutions: Weaponizing Subterfuge"

Mon, 02 Jun 2025 09:00:20 GMT

This CG episode got the complete audio upgrade and revision to achieve the cleanest sound ever for the podcast series effective 22 June 2025 using the new technology at Chris Williams' Podsworth.

We discuss coups, color revolutions and the changing face of political manipulation in the world.

The world is not what it seems even in non-military political manipulation. The hybrid and grey zone conflict is real. Color revolution have hijacked Western democracy and precipitated he slow decline of modern civilization.

References

Colpus Dataset

KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov's warning to America

A Retrospective on RMA, 2000-2020.

Edward Luttwak Coup d'État: A Practical Handbook, Revised Edition

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics

Oleg Karpovich Color Revolutions: Techniques in Breaking Down Modern Political Regimes

Ervand AbrahamianThe Coup: 1953, The CIA, and The Roots of Modern U.S.-Iranian Relations

David Talbot The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government

Georgii Samoilovich Isserson G.S. Isserson and the War of the Future: Key Writings of a Soviet Military Theorist

My Substack.

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

Ep 064 "War and Remembrance: Drawing the Wrong Lessons"

Mon, 26 May 2025 08:46:30 GMT

This CG episode got the complete audio upgrade and revision to achieve the cleanest sound ever for the podcast series effective 22 June 2025 using the new technology at Chris Williams' Podsworth.

Memorial Day is a day to reflect on the existential moral outrage and trail of tears American military might has draped over the planet since the end of the nineteenth century.

Wars of choice are by their very nature a path to corruption, excess and unintended consequences.

The concept of moral injuries for soldiers and non-soldiers alike, the gift of fear and being a dead man walking and how to handle regret and shame.

“As beasts are beneath human restraints, gods are above them... It would be foolish and untruthful to deny the appeal of exalted, godlike intoxication....We have seen the paradox that these godlike exalted moments often correspond to times when the men who have survived them say that they have acted like beasts....Above all, a sense of merely human virtue, a sense of being valued and of valuing anything seems to have fled their lives....However, all of our virtues come from not being gods. Generosity is meaningless to a god, who never suffers shortage or want. Courage is meaningless to a god, who is immortal and can never suffer permanent injury. The godlike berserk state can destroy the capacity for virtue. Whether the berserker is beneath humanity as an animal, above it as a god, or both, he is cut off from all human community when he is in this state.”

― Jonathan Shay, Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character

Those millions of men who have been in combat over the millennia have always brought home invisible scar tissue and regret that manifests in many ways but most of us take it to our graves.

References:

The Roots Tribunal in Congress

Nick Turse Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam

Bill Russel Edmonds God is Not Here: A Soldier's Struggle with Torture, Trauma, and the Moral Injuries of War

Clark Savage King of All Things: A Guide to Man's Martial Purpose

Dick Couch A Tactical Ethic: Moral Conduct in the Insurgent Battlespace

Andrew Bacevich Paths of Dissent: Soldiers Speak Out Against America's Misguided Wars

Shauna Springer WARRIOR: How to Support Those Who Protect Us

Jonathan Shay Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character

Jonathan Shay Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming

Access All Areas: A User's Guide to the Art of Urban Exploration

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 063 "Spanner in the Works: Sabotage and War"

Mon, 05 May 2025 09:41:53 GMT

This CG episode got the complete audio upgrade and revision to achieve the cleanest sound ever for the podcast series effective 22 June 2025 using the new technology at Chris Williams' Podsworth.

Military sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a government effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, demoralization, destabilization, division, disruption, or destruction. It can take place left of bang or during war with the object the weakening of the military effort by an adversary.

Military sabotage has been taking place since the early military adventures of men. The apocryphal story of the Trojan Horse is an ancient example and variations on the theme echo through historical warfare.

References:

Ian Jones Booby Traps!: The History of Deadly Devices, from World War I to Vietnam

Gordon L. Rottman World War II Axis Booby Traps and Sabotage Tactics

Gordon L. Rottman World War II Allied Sabotage Devices and Booby Traps

Lester Grau and Michael Gress The Red Army's Do-it-Yourself, Nazi-Bashing Guerrilla Warfare Manual: The Partizan's Handbook, Updated and Revised Edition, 1942

Roman Mars The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design

OSS Simple Sabotage Field Manual

FM 5-31 Boobytraps

TM 31-201-1 Unconventional Warfare Devices and Techniques: Incendiaries

Eric Frank Russell The Wasp

Michael Z. Williamson The Weapon (and the entire Freehold series)

Robert Heinlein The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Robert Asprey War In The Shadows: The Guerrilla In History

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

Ep 062 "Storming America: One Year Later"

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 08:56:47 GMT

This CG episode got the complete audio upgrade and revision to achieve the cleanest sound ever for the podcast series effective 22 June 2025 using the new technology at Chris Williams' Podsworth.

This episode examines American landscape one year later and whether the probability of attack is reduced or increased.

My Storming America Series covers the gamut of what the spontaneous attack in the US will look like when terror cells launch a simultaneous attack on the US homeland.

I cover it in Episodes 37, 41-43 and 49-50 of my Chasing Ghosts podcast.

I discuss the outcome of the probable jihadist invasion of America. America is in a unique position in history in which it has facilitated the unfettered invasion of its borders and a large swath of military age males have been granted asylum or gone undetected to link up with legacy underground Islamist and terrorist groups across the country.

References:

William Forstchen Day of Wrath

Kurt Schlichter The Attack

Karl Dahl

Enemies Foreign and Domestic

Foreign Enemies And Traitors

Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista

The Red Cliffs of Zerhoun

Castigo Cay

Eric Frank Russell The Wasp

Michael Z. Williamson The Weapon (and the entire Freehold series)

Ernest R. May Strange Victory: Hitler’s Conquest of France

Robert Heinlein The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Robert Asprey War In The Shadows: The Guerrilla In History

Howard Jones My Lai: Vietnam, 1968, and the Descent into Darkness

Points of Resistance and Departure: An interview with James C. Scott

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

Ep 061 "The Mountains of Madness: Military Defeat and Terrain Part I"

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 09:00:45 GMT

This CG episode got the complete audio upgrade and revision to achieve the cleanest sound ever for the podcast series effective 22 June 2025 using the new technology at Chris Williams' Podsworth.

With Western conflict possible in Yemen and Iran, I discuss the vagaries and verities of mountain warfare. The special hell of high altitude and colder temperatures and their effect on fighting and warfare.

I assess how the RMAs rapidly displacing centuries-old conflict norms are going to look for the remainder of the century.

Buppert’s Law of Military Topography:

“Mountainous terrain held by riflemen who know what they are about cannot be militarily defeated.”

References:

Lester Grau The Bear Went Over The Mountain: Soviet Combat Tactics In Afghanistan [Illustrated Edition]

Lester Grau The Other Side of the Mountain: Mujahideen Tactics in the Soviet-Afghan War

Mark Thompson The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front 1915-1919

James C. Scott The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia

Sun Tzu The Art of War

Carl von Clausewitz On War

Miyamoto Musashi A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

H. John Poole The Last Hundred Yards: The NCO’s Contribution to Warfare

Christian Brose The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare

Qiao Liang & Wang Xiangsui Unrestricted Warfare: China's Master Plan to Destroy America

My Substack:

John Burrow A History of Histories: Epics, Chronicles, and Inquiries from Herodotus and Thucydides to the Twentieth Century

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 060 "The Military Historian's Craft: Past Tense Imperfect"

Mon, 17 Mar 2025 09:00:44 GMT

This CG episode got the complete audio upgrade and revision to achieve the cleanest sound ever for the podcast series effective 22 June 2025 using the new technology at Chris Williams' Podsworth.

I am an un-credentialed amateur historian who has done very little archive work and lack the substantial infrastructure credentialed historians have to practice their craft. I have debated esteemed historians and won on stage (Daniel Walker Howe looked at my CV and did not prepare) but that doesn't make me better than them.

I think my various detours in life mostly outside the formal academy gives me a unique insight into how history works and why I think I am more sober than university historians.

I describe some of the reasons I do it and the techniques I employ to get the single most accurate picture of what happened then to determine what's going on now.

I am the Smedley D. Butler Fellow for Military Affairs at the Libertarian Institute.

Recommended Reading:

Mortimer Adler How To Read a Book

Robert Strassler The Landmark Xenophon's Hellenika (Landmark Series)

Mike Snook How Can Man Die Better: The Secrets of Isandlwana Revealed

Mike Snook Like Wolves on the Fold: The Defence of Rorke’s Drift

David Stahel Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East

David Hackett Fischer Historians' Fallacies : Toward a Logic of Historical Thought

Keith Windschuttle The Killing of History

Harry Elmer Barnes A History of Historical Writing

US Army Center of Military History

Ep 058 "The Mexican Cartel Conundrum: War Without End Part One"

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

Ep 059 "The Mexican Cartel Conundrum: War Without End Part Two"

Mon, 03 Mar 2025 10:00:50 GMT

This CG episode got the complete audio upgrade and revision to achieve the cleanest sound ever for the podcast series effective 22 June 2025 using the new technology at Chris Williams' Podsworth.

Here is Part One:

We continue the inquiry into the implications and future returns on going kinetic in the drug war as elucidated by worthies in the new administration.

I examine the implications and the second and third order effects of this endeavor which is, by extension, a declaration of war on the Mexican government.

***

Anyone attending the Special Operations Forces Week festivities in Tampa on 5-8 May 2025?

If so, we should arrange a rendezvous.

***

References:

Tom Wainwright Narconomics: How to Run a Drug Cartel

Benjamin T. Smith The Dope: The Real History of the Mexican Drug Trade

Anabel Hernandez Narcoland: The Mexican Drug Lords and Their Godfathers

Ioan Grillo El Narco: Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency

David F. Marley Mexican Cartels: An Encyclopedia of Mexico's Crime and Drug Wars

Carmen Boullosa A Narco History: How the United States and Mexico Jointly Created the “Mexican Drug War”

Patrick Winn Narcotopia: In Search of the Asian Drug Cartel That Survived the CIA

Jesse Fink Pure Narco: One Man's True Story of 25 Years Inside the Cartels

Mark Santiago A Bad Peace and a Good War: Spain and the Mescalero Apache Uprising of 1795–1799

Amy S. Greenberg A Wicked War: Polk, Clay, Lincoln, and the 1846 U.S. Invasion of Mexico

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

Ep 058 "The Mexican Cartel Conundrum: War Without End Part One"

Mon, 10 Feb 2025 11:01:59 GMT

Chasing Ghosts is back!

This CG episode got the complete audio upgrade and revision to achieve the cleanest sound ever for the podcast series effective 22 June 2025 using the new technology at Chris Williams' Podsworth.

There has been chatter and enthusiasm to use military means to take on the drugs and human trafficking organizations and cartels in Mexico (and I imagine the cartels in the north in Canada), this will not end well.

I examine the implications and the second and third order effects of this endeavor which is, by extension, a declaration of war on the Mexican government.

References:

Benjamin T. Smith The Dope: The Real History of the Mexican Drug Trade

Anabel Hernandez Narcoland: The Mexican Drug Lords and Their Godfathers

Ioan Grillo El Narco: Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency

David F. Marley Mexican Cartels: An Encyclopedia of Mexico's Crime and Drug Wars

Carmen Boullosa A Narco History: How the United States and Mexico Jointly Created the “Mexican Drug War”

Patrick Winn Narcotopia: In Search of the Asian Drug Cartel That Survived the CIA

Jesse Fink Pure Narco: One Man's True Story of 25 Years Inside the Cartels

Mark Santiago A Bad Peace and a Good War: Spain and the Mescalero Apache Uprising of 1795–1799

Amy S. Greenberg A Wicked War: Polk, Clay, Lincoln, and the 1846 U.S. Invasion of Mexico

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

Ep 057: "CG Announcement November 2024: WarNotes Podcast Rising"

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 15:03:27 GMT

I will be pausing Chasing Ghosts from its fortnightly cadence of issuance for the remainder of the year.

I am taking the time to regroup and focus on the new occasional podcast series, WarNotes: A Conflict Podcast as a companion podcast focusing on conventional conflict and strategic thought.

I think the new election results may be the time for the western military complexes to take a knee and refocus and re-calibrate strategic and grand strategic opportunities in addressing the real-time shortfalls in facing Revolutions in Military Affairs (RMA) that are littering the battlefields of the 21st century.

My first WarNotes series will be a comprehensive survey of how to fix the broken, shattered and most expensive paper tiger in the history of the world, the US military complex.

The Fixing Fight Club series will be weekly until I finish the survey.

The US is at a crossroads: continue to invest and spend on exquisite platforms that will simply be missile sponges in the emerging salvo competition landscape or retool a more thoughtful application of military power in concert with rationally extrapolating second and third order effects to stymie the pristine track record of military failure and stalemate since 1945.

I suggest the American military complex has a mere generation to reset its arthritic, sclerotic and top heavy platforms and stratagems before irrelevance and abject systemic military failure becomes the sole avenue left.

You can find the WarNotes podcast at my substack or look for it on your podcast vendor of choice.

https://substack.com/home/post/p-150848439?source=queue

Email me at cgpodcast@pm.me

Ep 056 "Pearl Snap Tactical Interview with Mark Booher"

Mon, 11 Nov 2024 10:00:49 GMT

Mark Booher at Pearl Snap Tactical interviewed me discussing irregular warfare and the threat to the homeland.

We discuss irregular warfare and the impacts of an up-sized catastrophic attack on the US homeland. We riff on and discuss my "Storming America" series (episodes 37, 41-43 and 49-50) on the CG podcast.

The election results don't change the imminent danger but may alter the warp and woof of the probability and timeline of attack.

Pearl Snap Tactical interview can be found here:

I talk about William Forstchen's "Day of Wrath" and Kurt Schlichter's "The Attack".

References:

William Forstchen Day of Wrath

Kurt Schlichter The Attack

Enemies Foreign and Domestic.

Foreign Enemies And Traitors.

Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista.

The Red Cliffs of Zerhoun.

Castigo Cay.

Eric Frank Russell The Wasp

Michael Z. Williamson The Weapon (and the entire Freehold series)

Ernest R. May Strange Victory: Hitler’s Conquest of France

Robert Heinlein The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Robert Asprey War In The Shadows: The Guerrilla In History

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

Ep 055 "The Shapiro-Ferguson Kerfuffle: History at War""

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 09:00:30 GMT

I am the Smedley D. Butler Fellow for Military Affairs at the Libertarian Institute.

They asked me to comment on the recent podcast interview between Ben Shapiro and Niall Ferguson which of course, was a reaction to Darryl Cooper's (Martyrmade Podcast) recent appearance on Tucker Carlson.

I find members of the academic historian cartel (even "right of center" types like Ferguson) are horrified that non-credentialed historical observers are weighing in on the consequences of war in history. I urge everyone to deprogram yourselves and listen to the rogue but right historians like Martyrmade and ProfCJ's Dangerous History podcasts to get the better and more accurate view of what actually happened in the past that shapes our present.

Here's what you must realize about war: wars are won by the least incompetent forces and the world will not be shiny and new at the conclusion but it will different.

I address some of these issues.

I would urge you to listen to CG podcast Episode 052 on Churchill for a more in-depth indictment of His Nibs.

My blogging at the Libertarian Institute.

A Retrospective on RMA, 2000-2020.

Write me at cgpodcast@pm.me

Ep 054 "CG Excursion: The American Military Empire is in Terminal Collapse"

Mon, 14 Oct 2024 09:00:34 GMT

The trillions dollar fragile American military complex is in big trouble in big war.

It doesn't work.

Robotics and drones are the new "low tech" answer to the First World's exquisite military platforms that are over priced and have the same provenance of battleships planet-wide in January 1942.

Autonomous targeting will become more and more relevant as the speed of munitions increases and the salvo competition costs are driven down.

Hypervelocity munitions are here to stay.

The life of the light infantryman will change significantly since for the first time in human history, the cost of hunting individual soldiers and small groups of soldiers in an effective fashion has reached a cost in concert with technology [I will treat this with more detail in a future episode on the end of the legacy infantryman].

In my next podcast, we will discuss how to recover from the current collapse.

"Quantity has a quality all of its own." - Thomas A. Callaghan Jr.

References:

The Russian Reconnaissance Fire Complex Comes of Age

Army Futures Command Concept for Fires 2028

Christian Brose The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare

Daniel Bolger Why We Lost: A General's Inside Account of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars

Craig Whitlock The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War

My Substack.

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 053 "CG Excursion: The Revolution Will Be Televised: Near Peer and Peer Conflict in the 21st Century"

Mon, 30 Sep 2024 04:37:55 GMT

Robotics and drones are the new "low tech" answer to the First World's exquisite military platform that are over priced and have the same provenance of battleships planet-wide in January 1942.

The electronic emissions environment in future conflicts will be a two-way street that will put any active acquisition sensors and attached effectors in the hazards if they emit and remain in one place.

Autonomous targeting will become more and more relevant as the speed of munitions increases and the salvo competition costs are driven down.

Hypervelocity munitions are here to stay.

The Russian Strike Reconnaissance Complex has come of age and the Russians have one of the most effective fires synchronization modalities on Earth. The system is now battle proven in the first near-peer and peer conflict of the 21st century.

Fires synchronization is the effective coordination of sensors and effectors in near-real time or real time in a hostile non-permissive combat environment to bring the metal on target.

"Quantity has a quality all of its own." - Thomas A. Callaghan Jr.

References:

A Retrospective on RMA, 2000-2020.

The Russian Reconnaissance Fire Complex Comes of Age

Army Futures Command Concept for Fires 2028

Christian Brose The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare

Lester Grau & Charles K. Bartles The Russian Way of War: Force Structure, Tactics, and Modernization of the Russian Ground Forces

David Glantz Soviet Operational and Tactical Combat in Manchuria, 1945 (Soviet (Russian) Study of War)

David Glantz Soviet Military Operational Art: In Pursuit of Deep Battle (Soviet (Russian) Military Theory and Practice)

Georgii Samoilovich Isserson G.S. Isserson and the War of the Future: Key Writings of a Soviet Military Theorist

My Substack.

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 052 "CG Excursion: Churchill: Imperial Bombast and the Death of the West"

Mon, 16 Sep 2024 09:00:29 GMT

This is an episode to examine what Churchill really did for the West after witnessing the emotional & ahistorical outbursts by the usual suspects after Darryl Cooper from the Martyrmade Podcast appeared on Tucker Carlson on 2 SEP 2024.

I am simply addressing the claims of Churchill as "the chief villain" which I think was hyperbolic (Cooper accedes to this) because I think Churchill was one of many villains during WWII. I am a reluctant Anglophile and I think historical revisionism is a healthy reaction to triumphalist historiography in the West that has made questioning accepted narratives a scholar crime.

Listen to the interview yourself before arriving at any conclusions.

References:

William Manchester The Last Lion Box Set: Winston Spencer Churchill, 1874 - 1965

Andrew Roberts Churchill: Walking with Destiny

David Reynolds In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War

John Charmley Churchill: The End of Glory : A Political Biography

John Charmley Churchill's Grand Alliance: The Anglo-American Special Relationship 1940-57

Gordan Corrigan BLOOD, SWEAT AND ARROGANCE: The Myth's of Churchill's War

Madhusree Mukerjee Churchill's Secret War: The British Empire and the Ravaging of India during World War II

Thomas Ricks Churchill and Orwell: The Fight for Freedom

Patrick J. Buchanan Churchill, Hitler, and "The Unnecessary War": How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World

Nicolai Tolstoy Victims of Yalta: The Secret Betrayal of the Allies: 1944-1947

Robert A. Pape Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War

Ralph Raico on Rethinking Churchill

The Libertarian Institute Blog

My Substack

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

Ep 051 "Cellular Ecology: Guerrilla Organizations and Grunt Math"

Mon, 02 Sep 2024 09:00:51 GMT

This is an episode to examine what cell structures look like and the methodologies of guerrillas and insurgents use to conduct clandestine or covert action.

I further discuss traditional, subversive, critical cell and mass-oriented and unconventional cell structures. We visit some historical parallels and why the US and the West may not catch the next wave of terror in America (not cooked up by the clownish FBI like the Whitmer disaster).

References:

Modeling Terrorist Networks - Complex Systems at the Mid-Range

Understanding the Form, Function, and Logic of Clandestine Insurgent and Terrorist Networks: The First Step in Effective Counternetwork Operations

HR Kedward In Search of the Maquis: Rural Resistance in Southern France, 1942-1944

George Millar Maquis: An Englishman in the French Resistance

Ian Wellsted SAS with the Maquis: In Action with the French Resistance, June–September 1944

Stephen Biddle Nonstate Warfare: The Military Methods of Guerillas, Warlords, and Militias

Richard Feynman's Cargo Cult Commencement Address at CalTech 1974

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

Ep 050 "Storming America: TTP to Make you Free (Part II)"

Mon, 26 Aug 2024 09:01:18 GMT

My Storming America Series covers the gamut of what the spontaneous attack in the US will look like when terror cells launch a simultaneous attack on the US homeland.

I cover it further in Episodes 37, 41-43 and 49 of my Chasing Ghosts podcast.

This is an episode to examine what you can do about the coming civil unrest in America. I discuss some of the tactics, techniques and procedures (TTP) the free range human can employ to prepare and protect themselves for the coming unpleasantness.

I further discuss weapons, kit, preps and training to prepare for what I consider the inevitable conflict emerging in the West. One morning we will all wake up to simultaneous attacks by bad actors across the country on soft targets, if you agree with that morbid notion, you have an obligation to act since you are warned.

References:

Water Filter: Katadyn Pocket Water Filter for Backpacking, Group Camping & Emergency Preparedness

Gunshot Trauma Kit/IFAK: EVERLIT Advanced Emergency Trauma Kit, CAT GEN-7 Tourniquet Tactical IFAK

My Vehicle Kit: North American Rescue Squad Medics Kit (CCRK) w/ Free Retractable Shears Leash (Multicam)

Rations: Humanitarian Daily Ration MRE Case 10 pack, Inspection Date 1/2024 or Better.

https://premierbodyarmor.com/blogs/pba/understanding-body-armor-ratings

https://backofbeyondsite.wordpress.com/2024/08/02/ammo-inventory/

INTERVIEW WITH C. REED KNIGHT, JR.: PART 2

Gordon L. Rottman

World War II Allied Sabotage Devices and Booby Traps

World War II Axis Booby Traps and Sabotage Tactics

William Forstchen Day of Wrath

Kurt Schlichter The Attack

Karl Dahl

Faction: With the Crusaders

Matt Bracken:

Enemies Foreign and Domestic.

Foreign Enemies And Traitors.

Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista.

Eric Frank Russell The Wasp

Michael Z. Williamson The Weapon (and the entire Freehold series)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHGtjx_2qbQ

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

Ep 049 "Storming America: TTP to Make you Free (Part I)"

Mon, 12 Aug 2024 09:01:17 GMT

My Storming America Series covers the gamut of what the spontaneous attack in the US will look like when terror cells launch a simultaneous attack on the US homeland.

I cover it further in Episodes 37, 41-43 and 50 of my Chasing Ghosts podcast.

I wanted to add a great note from one of my listeners [H/T to MG] that is a great addition to the recommendations for an entry price point Stoner platform. Be sure to get a red dot.

I would like to bring one thing to your attention. Garand Thumb did a video on the Palmetto State Armory (PSA) $400 AR-15 platform. Title of video: "How Many Rounds Will A 400 Dollar AR-15 Last"?

He matched up the PSA upper to a lower that allowed automatic fire to speed up the test. The rifle performed flawlessly into the 6500 rnds fired range to include engaging targets out to 700m to demonstrate barrel wear conditions.

Now consider that your high end AR platform will start experiencing problems in the 10-12 thousand rounds fired range and cost 3-4x the price of the PSA AR platform. For that same high end AR price you could purchase 3-5 of the PSA's rifles.

My key takeaway from the video, for new gun owners and/or strict budget due to our current economic decline and late stage empire, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend someone to buy 1-2 PSA rifles, a quality optic, and a 1-2 thousand rounds and yet still be under the price of a high end AR and it's high end optic normally paired.

References:

https://backofbeyondsite.wordpress.com/2024/08/02/ammo-inventory/

INTERVIEW WITH C. REED KNIGHT, JR.: PART 2

William Forstchen Day of Wrath

Kurt Schlichter The Attack

Karl Dahl

Enemies Foreign and Domestic.

Foreign Enemies And Traitors.

Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista.

The Red Cliffs of Zerhoun.

Castigo Cay.

Eric Frank Russell The Wasp

Michael Z. Williamson The Weapon (and the entire Freehold series)

Ernest R. May Strange Victory: Hitler’s Conquest of France

Robert Heinlein The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Robert Asprey War In The Shadows: The Guerrilla In History

The Russian Reconnaissance Fire Complex Comes of Age

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

Ep 048 "CG Excursion: Peer Strike ISR Complex: The Need for Rational Fires Coordination"

Mon, 29 Jul 2024 09:00:57 GMT

***Apologies; this episode appears to have some technical issues that I will address on return to my home studio; I am on the road right now.***

Fires synchronization is the effective coordination of sensors and effectors in near-real time or real time in a hostile non-permissive combat environment.

The West has no working system to coordinate its artillery, air and Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) assets in a peer or near-peer fight that works.

The Russians do.

Fires synchronization is the effective coordination of sensors and effectors in near-real time or real time in a hostile non-permissive combat environment to bring the metal on target.

"Quantity has a quality all of its own." - Thomas A. Callaghan Jr.

References:

Army Futures Command Concept for Fires 2028

Christian Brose The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare

Lester Grau & Charles K. Bartles The Russian Way of War: Force Structure, Tactics, and Modernization of the Russian Ground Forces

David Glantz Soviet Operational and Tactical Combat in Manchuria, 1945 (Soviet (Russian) Study of War)

David Glantz Soviet Military Operational Art: In Pursuit of Deep Battle (Soviet (Russian) Military Theory and Practice)

Georgii Samoilovich Isserson G.S. Isserson and the War of the Future: Key Writings of a Soviet Military Theorist

My Substack.

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 047 "Nagorno-Karabakh: A Dark and Robotic Future"

Mon, 15 Jul 2024 09:01:02 GMT

I discuss the Fall 2020 war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the tiny sliver of Nagorno-Karabakh and why I would suggest that it was a glimpse into the future of warfare for the remainder of this century. the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) for the following reasons:

Robotics and drones are the new "low tech" answer to the First World's exquisite military platform that are over priced and have the same provenance of battleships planet-wide in January 1942.

Autonomous targeting will become more and more relevant as the speed of munitions increases and the salvo competition costs are driven down.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has seen a remarkable increase in martial effectiveness since the Russians looked carefully at what happened in N-K, took notes and made changes to Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTP) in concert with the wholesale revamping of the Russian armed forces since 2008.

My Substack.

Email me at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 046 "Review and Discussion: My Lai: Vietnam, 1968, and the Descent into Darkness by Howard Jones"

Mon, 01 Jul 2024 09:00:30 GMT

I discuss the slaughter of over 500 unarmed men, women and children in My Lai in March 1968 by American soldiers.

In concert with the Tet Offensive in 1968, this was the end of American arms in Vietnam.

The collision of barbarism, toxic leadership and moral injury make everyone of these pages bleed. One of the most searing indictments of American arms you will read. This book is an acquired taste because it may crush your soul.

I caution you before you listen to this that the telling of this tale is will haunt any decent human being forever.

References:

Howard Jones My Lai: Vietnam, 1968, and the Descent into Darkness

Karl Marlantes What It Is Like to Go to War

Bill Russel Edmonds God is Not Here: A Soldier's Struggle with Torture, Trauma, and the Moral Injuries of War

Clark Savage King of All Things: A Guide to Man's Martial Purpose

Dick Couch A Tactical Ethic: Moral Conduct in the Insurgent Battlespace

Andrew Bacevich Paths of Dissent: Soldiers Speak Out Against America's Misguided Wars

Shauna Springer WARRIOR: How to Support Those Who Protect Us

Jonathan Shay Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character

Jonathan Shay Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming

Another podcast:

Martyrmade: Anything That Moves - The My Lai Massacre (w/History on Fire)

NASA Systems Engineering Handbook Rev 2

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 045 "CG Excursion Praxis: Rational Concepts of Operations (CONOPS) (Part Two)"

Mon, 17 Jun 2024 09:01:05 GMT

I continue a rather technical treatment of developing and using Concepts of Operations (CONOPS).

This episode examines the finer points of getting baselines and expectations right for small and large projects alike.

If you take these simple concepts for building a CONOPS to include how to do decomposition in Product Breakdown Structures (PBS) and Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) as described in MILSTD 881F and apply it wherever you happen to work at a small or large company, everybody will be in awe of the black magic you perform and it a. guaranteed Return on Investment (ROI) in how much money you will save downstream.

References:

Special Forces Detachment Mission Planning Guide GTA 31-01-003 January 2020

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE STANDARD PRACTICE WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURES FOR DEFENSE MATERIEL ITEMS MILSTD 881F 13 May 2022

Cost of 13 NASA projects skyrocket due to improper reviews

The US Submarine Force is Sunk

James Hornfischer "The Fleet at Flood Tide"

NASA Systems Engineering Handbook Rev 2

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

Ep 044 "CG Excursion Praxis: Rational Concepts of Operations (CONOPS) (Part One)"

Mon, 03 Jun 2024 09:01:16 GMT

I discuss a rather technical treatment of developing and using Concepts of Operations (CONOPS).

This episode examines the timeless and tedious process of getting baselines and expectations right for small and large projects alike.

References:

Special Forces Detachment Mission Planning Guide GTA 31-01-003 January 2020

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE STANDARD PRACTICE WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURES FOR DEFENSE MATERIEL ITEMS MILSTD 881F 13 May 2022

Cost of 13 NASA projects skyrocket due to improper reviews

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

Ep 043 "Storming America: The Aftermath"

Mon, 27 May 2024 08:44:20 GMT

My Storming America Series covers the gamut of what the spontaneous attack in the US will look like when terror cells launch a simultaneous attack on the US homeland.

I cover it further in Episodes 37, 41-42 and 49-50 of my Chasing Ghosts podcast.

This episodes examines the smoking ruins and speculate what the next stage of American civilization will look like.

References:

Howard Jones My Lai: Vietnam, 1968, and the Descent into Darkness

William Forstchen Day of Wrath

Kurt Schlichter The Attack

Karl Dahl

Enemies Foreign and Domestic.

Foreign Enemies And Traitors.

Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista.

The Red Cliffs of Zerhoun.

Castigo Cay.

Eric Frank Russell The Wasp

Michael Z. Williamson The Weapon (and the entire Freehold series)

Ernest R. May Strange Victory: Hitler’s Conquest of France

Robert Heinlein The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Robert Asprey War In The Shadows: The Guerrilla In History

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

Ep 042 "Storming America: War Comes Home"

Mon, 13 May 2024 09:00:57 GMT

My Storming America Series covers the gamut of what the spontaneous attack in the US will look like when terror cells launch a simultaneous attack on the US homeland.

I cover it further in Episodes 37, 41, 43 and 49-50 of my Chasing Ghosts podcast.

In this episode I discuss what the attack looks like in America.

This is not if, this is when.

The country is poised to experience this through a combination of neglect and the sheer hubris of meddling in the world without realize the unintended consequences.

I wish I had better news but you have been warned, it's on the horizon.

I talk about William Forstchen's "Day of Wrath" and Kurt Schlichter's "The Attack".

References:

William Forstchen Day of Wrath

Kurt Schlichter The Attack

Enemies Foreign and Domestic.

Foreign Enemies And Traitors.

Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista.

The Red Cliffs of Zerhoun.

Castigo Cay.

Eric Frank Russell The Wasp

Michael Z. Williamson The Weapon (and the entire Freehold series)

Ernest R. May Strange Victory: Hitler’s Conquest of France

Robert Heinlein The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Robert Asprey War In The Shadows: The Guerrilla In History

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 041 "Storming America: Intelligence Failure is Now and Forever"

Mon, 29 Apr 2024 09:00:44 GMT

My Storming America Series covers the gamut of what the spontaneous attack in the US will look like when terror cells launch a simultaneous attack on the US homeland.

I cover it further in Episodes 37, 42-43 and 49-50 of my Chasing Ghosts podcast.

This is a continuation of my "Storming America Series" where I will tease out and describe why the inevitable internal attack on America by external forces will be made real.

In this episode, I will examine what intelligence looks like from a professional perspective and why America and the West consistently engage in existential chaos avalanches that make the world a worse place.

The bureaucratic impulse in the West has been a significant factor in making the intelligence community (IC), like the military community, a paper tiger that is a far greater danger to the inhabitants of the west than an ally. Until the IC is restructured and made more effective, it will consume roughly 100 billion a year to produce shoddy analysis, inform bad policy and a Keystone Kops foreign covert operations history that is a national shame.

Like 9/11 and its existential failures, the next attack on America will have them simply asking for more money and more power.

If you leveled the FBI, NSA and CIA tomorrow morning, made each of their budgets one dollar and fired all their employees, you would still be safe as a country.

References:

Richard J. Heuer The Psychology of Intelligence Analysis

David Talbot The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government

Mortimer Adler How to Read a Book

Tim Weiner Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA

John Prado The Ghosts of Langley: Into the CIA's Heart of Darkness

My Substack.

Contact me at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 040 "The Middle East: Shuffling to the Apocalypse (Part Two)""

Mon, 15 Apr 2024 09:01:17 GMT

This episode will be an addendum to my initial coverage in October 2023 of the Gaza-Israel conflict in Episode 027 and riffing off the domestic implications in Episode 037 of a similar attack on CONUS. If you wish to listen to those before you do this one, you may but I have crafted this so that isn’t necessary.

The clock is closer to midnight than it was in October 2023.

References:

William Forstchen Day of Wrath

Kurt Schlichter The Attack

Enemies Foreign and Domestic.

Foreign Enemies And Traitors.

Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista.

The Red Cliffs of Zerhoun.

Castigo Cay.

Eric Frank Russell The Wasp

Michael Z. Williamson The Weapon (and the entire Freehold series)

Ernest R. May Strange Victory: Hitler’s Conquest of France

Robert Heinlein The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Robert Asprey War In The Shadows: The Guerrilla In History

Email me at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 039 "CG Excursion: Stoicism: Who Dares Leads"

Mon, 01 Apr 2024 09:01:30 GMT

I am reusing a previous episode I used in the now moribund Stoicism podcast I started, The Dash, which I ran out of steam on.

Applying Stoic values and discipline to the vocation and avocations we practice in life may be the hardest part outside of making a Stoic life a lived lifestyle. I find the management industry is a giant cargo cult that publishes books whose pages number in the hundreds but could simply be a page or two.

References:

James Clear Atomic Habits

Marcus Aurelius Meditations

Whitney J. Oakes (editor) The Stoic and Epicurean Philosophers: The Complete Extant Writings of Epicurus, Epictetus, Lucretius and Marcus Aurelius

Email me at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 038 "Moral Injury: The Invisible Warrior Marks"

Mon, 18 Mar 2024 09:00:52 GMT

The concept of moral injuries for soldiers and non-soldiers alike, the gift of fear and being a dead man walking and how to handle regret and shame.

― Jonathan Shay, Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character

Those millions of men who have been in combat over the millennia have always brought home invisible scar tissue and regret that manifests in many ways but most of us take it to our graves.

“…or the pilots doing nine-to-five jobs at computer consoles in Nevada killing people in Iraq and Afghanistan with drones and commuting to and from their homes like any other commuters. Imagine the psychic split that must ensue from bringing in death and destruction from the sky on a group of terrorists—young men who have mothers and a misplaced idealism that has led them into horrible criminal acts, but nevertheless young and brave men—and then driving home from the base to dinner with the spouse and kids. “Have a nice day at the office, hon?”

― Karl Marlantes, What It is Like to Go to War

References:

Karl Marlantes What It Is Like to Go to War

Bill Russel Edmonds God is Not Here: A Soldier's Struggle with Torture, Trauma, and the Moral Injuries of War

Clark Savage King of All Things: A Guide to Man's Martial Purpose

Dick Couch A Tactical Ethic: Moral Conduct in the Insurgent Battlespace

Andrew Bacevich Paths of Dissent: Soldiers Speak Out Against America's Misguided Wars

Shauna Springer WARRIOR: How to Support Those Who Protect Us

Jonathan Shay Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character

Jonathan Shay Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming

Warren v. District of Columbia

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 037 "Storming America: Another War Will Come Home"

Mon, 04 Mar 2024 10:00:43 GMT

My Storming America Series covers the gamut of what the spontaneous attack in the US will look like when terror cells launch a simultaneous attack on the US homeland.

I cover it further in Episodes 41-43 and 49-50 of my Chasing Ghosts podcast.

The hybrid and gray zone fight will come to America in the next war. Once the declining American colossus shuffles into the next near-peer and peer conflict, the 21st century will see the continental US come under a unified attack by external forces for the first time since the War of 1812 and the Mexican border issues in 1916. How the 9/11/2001 events have not been replicated is a cipher to me. We need to war-game all the possibilities once a war is initiated with a near-peer or peer adversary. The kinetic forces on the ground will be sleepers, NOCs or recently arrived illegals in addition to cadres recruited over time and left in place.

The police have no duty to protect citizens.

Supreme Court cases per police protection:

Castle Rock v. Gonzalez

DeShaney v. Winnebago County

Per the attack on Israel out of Gaza on 7 October 2023, only 140,000 Israelis out of a population of 9 million, or under two percent, were allowed to own a firearm prior to October and that is restricted to a handgun only and ammunition was limited to 50 rounds.

I talk about William Forstchen's "Day of Wrath" and Kurt Schlichter's "The Attack".

References:

William Forstchen Day of Wrath

Kurt Schlichter The Attack

Enemies Foreign and Domestic.

Foreign Enemies And Traitors.

Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista.

The Red Cliffs of Zerhoun.

Castigo Cay.

Eric Frank Russell The Wasp

Michael Z. Williamson The Weapon (and the entire Freehold series)

Ernest R. May Strange Victory: Hitler’s Conquest of France

Robert Heinlein The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Robert Asprey War In The Shadows: The Guerrilla In History

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 036 "Drunk on Direct Action: The Destruction of Army Special Forces in the GWOT"

Mon, 19 Feb 2024 10:00:19 GMT

The direct action concentration of US Army Special Forces (SF) in the conduct of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan at the expense of the specialized and storied legend of what SF could do in non-permissive environments raising partisan forces behind enemy lines. The Army SF concentrated on perfecting a craft that numerous other combat organizations like the USMC 0311, .Army 11Bs and the exquisitely talented Ranger Regiment could do handily not to mention the legendary prowess of the Tier One units.

SF could capitalize on the rich heritage of a regional expertise harnessed to a deep cultural IQ and understanding of allied and coalition fighting organizations. In concert with the deep intelligence and actionable intelligence infrastructure in a naturally expeditionary mindset practice strategic compression: the employment of tactical means to achieve and satisfy strategic end-states.

SF needs to carve out their talent-stacks and showcase what makes them unique.

References:

David Maxwell Counter-Unconventional Warfare (2014)

Douglas Porch Counterinsurgency: Exposing the Myths of the New Way of War

Ann Scott Tyson American Spartan: The Promise, the Mission, and the Betrayal of Special Forces Major Jim Grant

H. John Poole The Last Hundred Yards: The NCO’s Contribution to Warfare

Mark Bowden Blackhawk Down: A Story of Modern War

Bob Scales Scales on War: The Future of America’s Military at Risk

Aaron B. O’Connell Our Latest Longest War: Losing Hearts and Minds

Hy S. Rothstein Afghanistan and the Troubled Future of Unconventional Warfare

Robert Asprey War In The Shadows: The Guerrilla In History

Special Forces Detachment Mission Planning Guide HQDA January 2020

My Substack:

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 035 "Review and Discussion: Counterinsurgency: Exposing the Myths of the New Way of War by Douglas Porch"

Mon, 05 Feb 2024 10:01:45 GMT

Everyone and everything has an origin story, while I had a sneaking suspicion early on in my modest career in special operations and irregular warfare (IW) that something was fundamentally wrong with the western way of war in these endeavors, it was Douglas Porch who probably set my course straight. In this book, he makes a compelling historical and logical case for why the IW efforts planet-wide have not only been a failure but ones that repeat themselves again and again.

References:

Douglas Porch Counterinsurgency: Exposing the Myths of the New Way of War

Nathaniel Moir Number One Realist: Bernard Fall and Vietnamese Revolutionary Warfare

Martin Windrow The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam

Ted Morgan Valley of Death: The Tragedy at Dien Bien Phu That Led America into the Vietnam War

My Substack:

Jeff Vandenengel interview on Midrats with CDR Salamander

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 034 "CG Excursions: Deep Six the Carrier Force: Naval Power in the 21st Century"

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 10:00:33 GMT

Excursions is a new addition to the CG universe to cover adjacent conflict issues to the irregular warfare fight.

***

In the future near-peer and peer fight, salvo competition will be the preeminent means by which one country will kinetically overwhelm the other in a fight. I discuss the way the West is in an existential hazard of being woefully under-prepared to meet the threat if Western forces go toe toe with regional hegemons in the East or West.

Let’s anticipate the disasters now that are the Spanish in the English Channel in 1588, the British Royal Navy at Jutland in 1916, and the discovery in WWII all these battleships were not really capital ships, or had adequate armaments, yet their political dimensions compel not only their continuous construction but are the most devastating when lost.

The aircraft carrier has been a signature component of US naval power and prestige for more than a century. The utility has continued to diminish since the end of WWII. The tremendous disadvantage of putting so much manpower and treasure into these single use leviathan systems in the modern world of distributed missile and PGM systems, emerging near-peer & peer adversaries and concentration of power in vulnerable systems is a recipe for future disaster.

References:

Gerry Doyle Carrier Killer: China's Anti-Ship Ballistic Missiles and Theater of Operations in the early 21st Century

David Lee Russell Early U.S. Navy Carrier Raids, February-April 1942: Five Operations That Tested a New Dimension of American Air Power

Jeff Vandenengel Questioning the Carrier: Opportunities in Fleet Design for the U.S. Navy

Ivan Gogin Fighting ships of the PEOPLE LIBERATION ARMY NAVY 1949 - 2023

Jerry Hendrix Retreat From Range: The Rise and Fall of Carrier Aviation

My Substack:

The Russian Reconnaissance Fire Complex Comes of Age

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 033 "CG Excursions: Salvo Competition and the Big Fight"

Mon, 08 Jan 2024 05:10:15 GMT

Excursions will be a new addition to the CG universe to cover adjacent conflict issues to the irregular warfare fight.

References:

Nassim Taleb Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder

Mark Gunzinger & Bryan Clark Winning the Salvo Competition: Rebalancing America’s Air and Missile Defense

Christian Brose The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare

My Substack:

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 032 "US Military Special Operations Forces Can't Do UW (Part Two)"

Tue, 26 Dec 2023 05:10:28 GMT

The emerging anti-fragile forces of indigenous irregular warfare forces in concert or independent of near-peer and peer competitors challenging US and western global hegemony are on the march and will in the end succeed.

References:

David Maxwell Counter-Unconventional Warfare (2014)

Douglas Porch Counterinsurgency: Exposing the Myths of the New Way of War

Ann Scott Tyson American Spartan: The Promise, the Mission, and the Betrayal of Special Forces Major Jim Grant

H. John Poole The Last Hundred Yards: The NCO’s Contribution to Warfare

Mark Bowden Blackhawk Down: A Story of Modern War

Bob Scales Scales on War: The Future of America’s Military at Risk

Aaron B. O’Connell Our Latest Longest War: Losing Hearts and Minds

Hy S. Rothstein Afghanistan and the Troubled Future of Unconventional Warfare

Robert Asprey War In The Shadows: The Guerrilla In History

Special Forces Detachment Mission Planning Guide HQDA January 2020

My Substack:

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 031 "US Military Special Operations Forces Can't Do UW (Part One)"

Mon, 18 Dec 2023 10:00:25 GMT

In this episode, I will be a heretic to the current military establishment in America and the west. They can't do unconventional warfare and I must be very specific in the conditional problem I propose: the western military has no capability to conduct long term partisan warfare in concert with indigenous forces fighting an insurgency in a non-permissive environment. It doesn't have the language skills, cultural IQ, sophisticated intelligence/communications infrastructure to support stay-behind missions, isolated stand-in force capability (nor does the USMC for FD2030 fantasies) comprehensive bushcraft and primitive skills for long loiter missions nor a fighting force that is capable of living in third world conditions for years (rotational longevity) at a time.

This is Part One of a two part series in which we will discuss the converse capabilities conundrum in counter UW for the west in Part Two published o/a 26 December 2023.

References:

David Maxwell Counter-Unconventional Warfare (2014)

Douglas Porch Counterinsurgency: Exposing the Myths of the New Way of War

Ann Scott Tyson American Spartan: The Promise, the Mission, and the Betrayal of Special Forces Major Jim Grant

H. John Poole The Last Hundred Yards: The NCO’s Contribution to Warfare

Mark Bowden Blackhawk Down: A Story of Modern War

Bob Scales Scales on War: The Future of America’s Military at Risk

Aaron B. O’Connell Our Latest Longest War: Losing Hearts and Minds

Hy S. Rothstein Afghanistan and the Troubled Future of Unconventional Warfare

Robert Asprey War In The Shadows: The Guerrilla In History

Special Forces Detachment Mission Planning Guide HQDA January 2020

My Substack:

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 030 "US Military Special Operations Forces: US Army Special Forces"

Mon, 04 Dec 2023 10:00:24 GMT

Here we do a deep dive in US Army Special Forces (SF) and why a complete overhaul is needed to resurrect the original charter to save SF from itself. Over two decades of fighting neo-colonial conflicts throughout the Middle East and Africa has decimated the original construct and mission of what made SF so special.

References:

Douglas Porch Counterinsurgency: Exposing the Myths of the New Way of War

Ann Scott Tyson American Spartan: The Promise, the Mission, and the Betrayal of Special Forces Major Jim Grant

H. John Poole The Last Hundred Yards: The NCO’s Contribution to Warfare

Mark Bowden Blackhawk Down: A Story of Modern War

Bob Scales Scales on War: The Future of America’s Military at Risk

Aaron B. O’Connell Our Latest Longest War: Losing Hearts and Minds

Hy S. Rothstein Afghanistan and the Troubled Future of Unconventional Warfare

Robert Asprey War In The Shadows: The Guerrilla In History

Special Forces Detachment Mission Planning Guide HQDA January 2020

My Substack:

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 029 "US Military Special Operations Forces: US Army"

Mon, 20 Nov 2023 10:00:55 GMT

Today, I'll do a deep dive into the US Army vanilla SOF organziations and get acquainted with the capabilities and opportunities for US Army special operations.

My Substack:

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 028 "US Military Special Operations Forces: A Primer"

Mon, 13 Nov 2023 17:58:14 GMT

A brief introduction to the Department of Defense activities in special operations. I will not be discussing the dark organizations and specifically address the "vanilla" SOF in all the services.

References:

Douglas Porch Counterinsurgency: Exposing the Myths of the New Way of War

Ann Scott Tyson American Spartan: The Promise, the Mission, and the Betrayal of Special Forces Major Jim Grant

H. John Poole The Last Hundred Yards: The NCO’s Contribution to Warfare

Mark Bowden Blackhawk Down: A Story of Modern War

Bob Scales Scales on War: The Future of America’s Military at Risk

Aaron B. O’Connell Our Latest Longest War: Losing Hearts and Minds

Hy S. Rothstein Afghanistan and the Troubled Future of Unconventional Warfare

Robert Asprey War In The Shadows: The Guerrilla In History

Special Forces Detachment Mission Planning Guide HQDA January 2020

My Substack:

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 027 "The Middle East: Shuffling to the Apocalypse (Part One)"

Mon, 30 Oct 2023 14:08:07 GMT

We discuss the Israeli emergency in its latest iteration in the horrific attacks by Hamas into Israel in October 2023 and the simmering conflict bands that emerging globally in which this is another explosion in the global conflict rift. For those who thought the podcast died, its death has been greatly exaggerated. My move to FL from AZ is now complete and many apologies for the disturbance of my fortnightly podcast episode rhythm by being late two weeks with a new episode.

The podcast studio took some time to resurrect but here we are.

I said Pat Keller in the the podcast, it is Bob Keller; apologies Bob, senior moment.

References:

David Fromkin A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East

Jonathan Schneer The Balfour Declaration: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Kenneth Pollack Armies of Sand: The Past, Present, and Future of Arab Military Effectiveness

Darryl Cooper & MartyrMade Fear & Loathing in the New Jerusalem [podcast]

My Substack:

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 026 "Review and Discussion: Tattoo Zoo by Paul Avallone"

Mon, 02 Oct 2023 07:10:12 GMT

Every war has a seminal novel, a book that really resonates with generation that wrote it and the following generations from the Iliad to Gore Vidal's historical fiction to The Centurions by Jean Larteguy to From Here to Eternity by James Jones to this one.

References:

Paul Avallone Tattoo Zoo: A Novel of the Afghan War

Jean Larteguy The Centurions

Anton Myrer Once an Eagle

My Substack:

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 025 "Technicals: Toyotas Go To War""

Mon, 18 Sep 2023 07:10:13 GMT

In the one year anniversary episode (!), we chat about the use of thin-skinned vehicles in the modern age and the asymmetric nature of the fight. The employment of commercially produced vehicles for conduct of raids and ambushes employing a wide array of weapons medium- to heavy-machine guns to mortars to ATGMs and everything in between. Please note that Toyota outside of Japan does not produce these for purpose-built military employment.

And to my fellow CruiserHeads, I salute you.

References:

Leigh Neville Technicals: Non-Standard Tactical Vehicles from the Great Toyota War to modern Special Forces

Alaric Searle & Ed Nash Kurdish Armour Against ISIS: YPG/SDF tanks, technicals and AFVs in the Syrian Civil War, 2014–19

My Substack:

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 024 "The Other Fight: Understanding the Conventional Conflict""

Mon, 04 Sep 2023 12:00:12 GMT

I take the time to discuss some of the conventional ramifications of modern warfare and book recommendations that have given me a deeper and more nuanced understanding of why wars begin and end as they do.

References:

Sun Tzu The Art of War

Carl von Clausewitz On War

Miyamoto Musashi A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

H. John Poole The Last Hundred Yards: The NCO’s Contribution to Warfare

Christian Brose The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare

Qiao Liang & Wang Xiangsui Unrestricted Warfare: China's Master Plan to Destroy America

My Substack:

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 023 "Afghanistan: The Soviet Debacle 1978-1989"

Mon, 21 Aug 2023 12:01:39 GMT

The defeat of the USSR in Afghanistan was part of a broad tapestry of disasters that eventually brought the Russian communist state crashing down. The shattering of Soviet forces by the indigenous rebels aided by foreign fighters and sophisticated weapons technology from the West doomed the USSR to failure. The Americans would later respond with: "Hold my beer..."

References:

Ahmed Rashid Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia

Rodric Braithewaite Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan 1979-89

Daniel P. Bolger Feast of Bones: A Novel

My Substack:

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 022 "Review and Discussion: Day of the Rangers: The Battle of Mogadishu 25 Years On""

Mon, 07 Aug 2023 12:00:17 GMT

We examine the Day of the Rangers: The Battle of Mogadishu 25 Years On by Leigh Neville and Matt Eversmann to discuss the book, the event and what led up to the event.

References:

Leigh Neville & Matt Eversmann Day of the Rangers: The Battle of Mogadishu 25 Years On

Mark Bowden Blackhawk Down

My Substack:

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 021 "Review and Discussion: Jack Hinson's One-Man War by Tom C. McKinney "

Mon, 24 Jul 2023 12:01:08 GMT

We discuss the book, guerrilla and insurgency warfare during the American war in 1861-65, the atrocity cycle, guerrilla math and the hopelessness of occupation avoiding the injury of civilians.

References:

Tom McKinney Jack Hinson's One-Man War, A Civil War Sniper

Daniel E. Sutherland A Savage Conflict: The Decisive Role of Guerrillas in the American Civil War

My Substack:

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 020 "COIN Malpractice: Lessons Never Learned (Part One)"

Mon, 10 Jul 2023 12:00:34 GMT

It appears the West just can't get counterinsurgency right. I talk about some of the framework ideas that would be good lessons learned for those who I think wisely and would try to avoid COIN. The major takeaway is that insurgencies are rather antifragile and bureaucracies are the enemy of effectiveness and innovation.

References:

Nassim Taleb Incerto: Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan, The Bed of Procrustes, Antifragile, Skin in the Game

Douglas Porch Counterinsurgency: Exposing the Myths of the New Way of War

My Substack:

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 019 "Murphy Rex: Complexity and War"

Mon, 26 Jun 2023 12:01:01 GMT

I discuss the complex adaptive system that is war that Clausewitz categorically identified as "friction" in the nineteenth century. We'll examine what chaos and complexity has to do with conflict, why it is inevitable and why wars are won by the least incompetent armies and navies.

References:

Nassim Taleb Incerto: Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan, The Bed of Procrustes, Antifragile, Skin in the Game

Carl von Clausewitz On War

My Substack:

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 018 "French COIN: Paras in Paris (Part Three)"

Mon, 12 Jun 2023 12:00:38 GMT

The April 1961 Generals’ Putsch of Algiers (Putsch des généraux), was a failed military action to press French President Charles de Gaulle to not abandon French Algeria, along with French people and pro-French Arabs living there. The putsch in French Algeria was conducted by four retired generals, led by Maurice Challe, the commander of the French Armed Forces in Algeria in 1958-60 and the author of the successful Challe Plan. The plan which in effect helped to defeat militant rebels across Algeria.

References:

Martin Windrow Our Friends Beneath the Sands: The Foreign Legion in France's Colonial Conquests 1870-1935

Douglas Porch The French Foreign Legion: A Complete History of the Legendary Fighting Force

Douglas Porch Counterinsurgency

Alistair Horne A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962

Martin Evans Algeria: France's Undeclared War (Making of the Modern World)

My Substack:

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 017 Memorial Day Mailbag

Mon, 29 May 2023 12:00:38 GMT

In this episode, I go through some of the more interesting emails and comments I have gotten since the podcast began in September 2022.

My Substack:

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 016 "TE Lawrence and the Guerrilla Mind (Part Three)"

Tue, 16 May 2023 12:01:03 GMT

his episodes examines the unconventional and eccentric mind sets of Lawrence and other famous and obscure military figures. We examine the way some armies embrace this while others discourage it.

References:

Scott Anderson Lawrence of Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East

James J. Schneider Guerrilla Leader: TE Lawrence and the Arab Revolt

TE Lawrence Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Desmond Stewart TE Lawrence: A New Biography

Jeremy Wilson Lawrence of Arabia: The Authorized Biography of TE Lawrence

Ranulph Fiennes Lawrence of Arabia: My Journey in Search of T. E. Lawrence

My Substack:

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 015 "TE Lawrence and the Guerrilla Mind (Part Two)"

Mon, 01 May 2023 12:00:45 GMT

In this episode we will discuss how Lawrence's medievalism gave him a tremendous advantage serendipitously advising and leading the local Arab revolt during WWI against the Turks and more deeply, Allied efforts to map a post-war world. His predilections in study, preparation and application of his 27 points led to a success the British army and the larger Allied effort could not have achieved without him.

References:

Scott Anderson Lawrence of Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East

James J. Schneider Guerrilla Leader: TE Lawrence and the Arab Revolt

TE Lawrence Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Desmond Stewart TE Lawrence: A New Biography

Jeremy Wilson Lawrence of Arabia: The Authorized Biography of TE Lawrence

Ranulph Fiennes Lawrence of Arabia: My Journey in Search of T. E. Lawrence

My Substack:

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 014 "TE Lawrence and the Guerrilla Mind (Part One)"

Mon, 17 Apr 2023 12:00:48 GMT

One of the peak guerrilla fountainheads in the early twentieth century, TE Lawrence has been in both the popular imagination and a large part of the engine in the Middle East that signed the death knell for foreign colonial powers to leave the region, Eccentric and brilliant, one of the few successful insurgency leaders during WWI.

References:

Scott Anderson Lawrence of Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East

James J. Schneider Guerrilla Leader: TE Lawrence and the Arab Revolt

TE Lawrence Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Desmond Stewart TE Lawrence: A New Biography

Jeremy Wilson Lawrence of Arabia: The Authorized Biography of TE Lawrence

Ranulph Fiennes Lawrence of Arabia: My Journey in Search of T. E. Lawrence

My Substack:

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 013 "CG Goes to the Movies: Red Dawn (1984)"

Sun, 02 Apr 2023 12:00:17 GMT

The brilliant John Milius helmed this production in the thick of the cold war waning with the USSR. This will be the first episode where we examine the collision between irregular warfare and popular culture.

My Substack:

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 012 "Sisyphus is God: Government Incompetence and Martial Failure"

Mon, 20 Mar 2023 12:01:16 GMT

Government, for a variety of reasons, is manifestly incompetent in everything it does and this lends parts of the explanatory framework in why systemic failure is the feature not a bug in Western martial efforts.

The critiques of the government supremacist mindset are legion and one can find many rational and elegant theses if you start at the Mises Institute and listen to the podcasts of Scott Horton at Antiwar.com. Scott and I recently did a deep dive together in Episode 5850 "Bill Buppert: A Deep Dive into Irregular Warfare" on 17 February 2023.

References:

Ludwig von Mises Bureaucracy

Colin Gray Modern Strategy

Thomas Sowell Knowledge and Decision

Daniel P. Bolger How We Lost: A General’s Inside Account of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars

My Substack:

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 011 "Three Strikes of the Match: American Divorce 1775"

Mon, 06 Mar 2023 12:00:27 GMT

As a former Appleseed instructor and Shoot Boss in AZ, I had the opportunity to teach a marksmanship/history project that had me master the origins and details of the first month of the First American Revolution. I cover the "Three Strikes of the Match" that we used as an organization to educate folks about the marriage between marksmanship and liberty that initiated the divorce from London in 1775.

References:

David Hackett Fischer Paul Revere's Ride

J. L. Bell The Road to Concord: How Four Stolen Cannon Ignited the Revolutionary War

Robert A. Gross The Minutemen and Their World

John R. Galvin The Minute Men: The First Fight: Myths and Realities of the American Revolution

Kevin Phillips The Cousins War: Religion, Politics, Civil Warfare, And The Triumph Of Anglo-America

John F. Ross War on the Run: The Epic Story of Robert Rogers and the Conquest of America's First Frontier

Stephen Brumwell White Devil: A True Story of War, Savagery And Vengeance in Colonial America

My Substack:

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 010 "Review and Discussion: Stalin's War by Sean McMeekin"

Tue, 21 Feb 2023 00:51:54 GMT

I review and discuss Sean McMeekin's brilliant tome on Stalin being the ascendant and most successful antagonist in WWII.

References:

Sean McMeekin Stalin's War: A New History of World War II

John Koster Operation Snow: How a Soviet Mole in FDR's White House Triggered Pearl Harbor

Herbert Romerstein, Eric Breindel The Venona Secrets, Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors

M. Stanton Evans, Herbert Romerstein Stalin's Secret Agents: The Subversion of Roosevelt's Government

My Substack:

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 009 "French COIN: Algeria: Losing Afrique (Part Two)"

Mon, 06 Feb 2023 12:00:27 GMT

I discuss the French experience in north Africa and the devastating consequences of the double blow of losing Indochina in the same time-frame in Algeria in north Africa.

References:

Martin Windrow Our Friends Beneath the Sands: The Foreign Legion in France's Colonial Conquests 1870-1935

Douglas Porch The French Foreign Legion: A Complete History of the Legendary Fighting Force

Douglas Porch Counterinsurgency

My Substack:

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 008 "French COIN: Introduction and the Indochina Dénouement (Part One)"

Mon, 23 Jan 2023 12:01:24 GMT

In this first episode, I discuss the fundamentals of French irregular warfare doctrine with a concentration on COIN, French martial history in a thumbnail and the tragedy of French arms in post-WWII Indochina.

References:

Martin Windrow The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam

Bernard Fall Hell in a Very Small Place

Bernard Fall Street Without Joy

Ted Morgan Valley of Death: The Tragedy at Dien Bien Phu That Led America into the Vietnam War

My Substack:

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 007 "Review and Discussion: Wrong Turn by Gian Gentile"

Mon, 09 Jan 2023 12:20:17 GMT

A short but effective tome that is a sound introduction to why the western COIN complex is so wrong-headed and intellectually bankrupt.

References:

Colonel Gian Gentile Wrong Turn: America’s Deadly Embrace of Counterinsurgency

My Substack:

ADP 6-0 Mission Command

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 006 "Frameworks and Strategic Deficit Disorder"

Sun, 18 Dec 2022 21:27:45 GMT

I discuss the combat framework from the tactical to the operational to the strategic level and mission command for both regular and irregular warfare (IW). A deep knowledge of conventional warfare is very useful to fully grokking how IW works hence the inclusion of that perspective.

References:

Grant Tedrick Hammond The Mind of War: John Boyd and American Security

Stephen Robinson Blind Strategist: John Boyd and the American Art of War

Colin Gray Modern Strategy

Carl von Clausewitz On War

My Substack:

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 005 "Peak Guerrilla: The Origins of Modern Irregular Warfare"

Sun, 04 Dec 2022 17:01:10 GMT

In this episode, I sketch the lives and exploits of three guerrilla luminaries: TE Lawrence, GEN Paul Emil von Letter-Vorbeck and Michael Collins. I want to use them to illustrate what I consider the next step in guerrilla evolution employing age-old techniques and strategies harnessed to modern technology and employment within the new age of mechanized warfare.

References:

Tim Pat Coogan Michael Collins

James Gleeson Bloody Sunday

Tom Barry Guerrilla Days in Ireland

Peter Hart Michael Collins

Edwin P. Hoyt Guerrilla: COL Lettow-Vorbeck and Germany’s East African Empire

Scott Anderson Lawrence of Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East

James J. Schneider Guerrilla Leader: TE Lawrence and the Arab Revolt

My Substack:

Email me at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 004 "The Impossibility of Successful Western Counterinsurgency"

Sun, 20 Nov 2022 19:32:00 GMT

Despite trillions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of deaths, the West has nothing to show for the counterinsurgency campaigns it has waged. Despite the enormous industry and vast intellectual and historical apologetics combine, the wasteland is evident to all who take the time to examine the details. The emperor of COIN is naked.

References:

Nassim Taleb: The Black Swan, Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder

Douglas Porch: Counterinsurgency: Exposing the Myths of the New Way of War

Robert Asprey War in the Shadows

My Substack:

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 003 "Michael Collins: The Empire Blinks"

Sun, 06 Nov 2022 16:08:39 GMT

The Irish Rebellion in 1916-1922 is what I characterize as in the era of "Peak Guerrilla" in concert with the exploits of TE Lawrence and GEN Paul Emil von Letter-Vorbeck that set the stage for the modern irregular warfare era in the twentieth century. I will examine the exploits of Collins and the curious currents of history on a global basis that came to have great impacts on what appear to be local and regional conflicts and their final resolution.

References:

Tim Pat Coogan Michael Collins

James Gleeson Bloody Sunday

Tom Barry Guerrilla Days in Ireland

My Substack:

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 002 "Antifragility and Irregular Warfare"

Mon, 10 Oct 2022 23:40:20 GMT

In this episode, I make the case that insurgencies are antifragile and that counterinsurgencies are fragile for the most part; we discuss the concepts, examine historical and contemporary examples and set the stage for practitioners and scholars to leverage this model to gain a more true understanding of how IW works.

References:

Nassim Taleb: The Black Swan and Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder

Douglas Porch: Counterinsurgency: Exposing the Myths of the New Way of War

My Substack:

Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Ep 001 "Terms of Endearment"

Mon, 26 Sep 2022 03:15:31 GMT

This charter episode will discuss the intent of the podcast and get started with the basics to create a framework of common understanding. This episode will discuss the National Defense Strategy, generations of warfare, civil war and the regional conflict complexes that emerge from larger wars and conflicts. Irregular warfare (IW) is rather complex and tends to be muddier, more nuanced and subject to interpretative misconceptions and we'll lay the groundwork for understanding these in both the larger and smaller contexts.

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